Each year the annual plants at Claret Ash Farm, such as chamomile and calendula, need to be re-sown. Jan likes to let a portion of the strongest plants go to seed so she can collect these seeds to plant for the next growing season. This practice means that each year, the plants go from strength to strength.
Calendula seed selection is a great example of this practice. The original variety of calendula have a brown centre. However, over the years Jan has collected seeds from plants that have grown a bright orange centre, as these are much higher in beta-carotene, an important anti-oxidant for skin. Consequently, the calendula crop at Claret Ash Farm is now nearly all of the potent orange-centred variety 🧡